7 Ways to Speed up Your Computer ...

One of the best ways to speed up your computer is to free up space on the hard drive. You need to have at least 5% of the capacity free. Have a look at what's on your hard drive; you'll probably find lots of programs you don't use. And if you've got large files like movies on it, they'll be taking up huge amounts of space. Delete everything you've watched or no longer need.

Computers get hot, just like we do! My laptop was getting too hot and shutting down (the computer does this to avoid damage), so I invested in a cooling pad. This simply plugs into the USB and keeps the laptop cool. You can also clean out the air vents with a can of compressed air.

Do you ever delete your temporary internet files? Every time you visit a web page your computer stores the data so that the page will load more quickly next time. However, this does take up a lot of space and will eventually slow the processor down. You should periodically clear out the temporary files, which will free up space and help speed up your computer.

Another way of speeding up your computer is to avoid opening too many programs at the same time. Having several programs open at the same time uses a lot of memory. So try closing programs once you've finished with them. Only have what you need open at any one time.

You'll notice that a number of programs open when your operating system (ie Windows) starts up, such as messenger programs and Skype. But this is another thing that can slow down your computer. Try restricting this so that only the most useful programs start up along with Windows. You can always open other programs as and when you need them.

If you're using an older computer, or a lot of powerful programs, you may find that your computer doesn't have enough memory for your needs. This will slow it down. It may be worth increasing its memory (if only you could do that for people!). How do you know if you need more RAM? Open Task Manager and click on Performance; then look under Physical Memory. If the figure by 'available' is low, you may need more memory.

Finally, don't neglect maintenance of your computer. If your computer is running really slowly and web pages take forever to load, this could be caused by a virus. So always keep your anti-virus software up to date. Also uninstall programs you no longer use, and scan your computer for spyware.

It's really annoying when your computer slows down and it seems to take forever to do anything. Fortunately these simple steps can help get your computer running faster. Do you remember how slow computers used to be? What model was your first computer?